System and apparatus of generalized network controller for a software defined network (SDN)

摘要

A generalized network controller in a software defined network (SDN), controlling a network with mixed switches based on different and even incompatible OpenFlow (OF) standard versions, comprising a first transceiver connected to a first OF switch comprising a first OF standard version configured to receive messages from the first OF switch and to transmit messages to the first OF switch; a second transceiver connected to a second OF switch comprising a second OF standard version configured to receive messages from the second OF switch and to transmit messages to the second OF switch, wherein the first OF standard version is different from the second OF standard version, and wherein the first OF standard version is incompatible with the second OF standard version; and a processor coupled to the first and second transceivers and configured to control the first and the second OF switches.

主权项

1. A method for controlling a plurality of Open Flow (OF) switches corresponding to different OF standard versions in a network controller in a software defined network (SDN), comprising:
receiving at a receiver an incoming message from a first one of the OF switches, wherein at least two of the OF switches correspond to different non-compatible versions of an OF standard; translating with a processor the incoming message into a version independent message; processing with the processor the version independent message to generate a network management outgoing message to a second one of the OF switches; and translating the outgoing message into a version dependent message corresponding to a version compatible with the second one of the OF switches, wherein the version independent message comprises an abstracted message type OF_Type in an abstracted OF_Message format, wherein the incoming message and the outgoing message comprise a type selected from a group consisting of version dependent subclasses OF_Type10 and OF_Type12, and wherein the incoming message and the outgoing message comprise a format selected from a group consisting of version dependent subclasses OF_Message10 and OF_Message12.